Seems like sometimes after waking up my laptop screen, the Intel driver igfx will stop responding and trigger a driver recovery - the error "Display driver igfx stopped responding and has successfully recovered" is logged in Event Viewer.

This almost never happened in Windows 8. I'm using the same driver - it's the latest Windows 7 driver with the INF modified so it can install on Windows 8/8.1. I'm pretty sure when I was using the provided drivers from Windows Update the crashes happened with similar frequency.

Anyone seeing the same thing happen? My laptop's on a first-gen Intel Core processor, thus my faith in Intel updating drivers for my laptop is next to nil seeing how they've designated these drivers as legacy.

I'm running 8.1 with Intel HD first gen and I don't get these problems. Windows 8.1 downloaded updates from Windows Update right away as soon as it connected. I wouldn't running Windows 7 drivers on 8.1.

Now, the drivers in 8.1 aren't perfect either, there is some tearing when scrolling on some sites but at least no crashing going on here.

I've noticed this sort of behaviour in laptops of various eras. The best I can suggest is try updating the bios (if possible) and using different video drivers to try and troubleshoot. Sometimes I've found older drivers may work better than newer ones.

I've noticed this sort of behaviour in laptops of various eras. The best I can suggest is try updating the bios (if possible) and using different video drivers to try and troubleshoot. Sometimes I've found older drivers may work better than newer ones.

No longer possible. It's a Dell/Alienware laptop and no BIOS update since 2011.

I'm running 8.1 with Intel HD first gen and I don't get these problems. Windows 8.1 downloaded updates from Windows Update right away as soon as it connected. I wouldn't running Windows 7 drivers on 8.1.

Now, the drivers in 8.1 aren't perfect either, there is some tearing when scrolling on some sites but at least no crashing going on here.

Thanks for the tip; I'll try reverting drivers to the ones from Windows Update.

Yeah scrolling in IE11 is on one hand smooth, but the repainting is reminiscent of mobile browsers doing checkerboarding.

I'm having the exact same problem on my Dell Latitude 10 tablet using the Intel Atom Z2760 Processor with GMA graphics. However, due to how the latitude 10 sleep and wakes instantly, the extra 5 seconds for the graphics driver to restart every time I hit the power button is really annoying. I had no problems with windows 8, just with 8.1 when I upgraded earlier today. I already tried uninstalling the graphics and grabbing the graphics update from windows update with no change.

Intel has marked the first-gen Core (Arrandale/Clarkdale) as legacy drivers, in the same way as they've done for all GMA chips. Officially, driver support for the last GMA drivers and the first-gen Core CPUs are via Windows Update only. However, the drivers they make available on Windows Update are essentially the same drivers for Windows 7, hence why modifying the INF as I've described above on Windows 7 drivers will work. As of this post, the latest driver version is 2993 whereas on Windows Update it's 2900.

And since these are Windows 7 drivers, I'm skeptical of them updating their codebase just to resolve driver crashes in Windows 8.1. They would have to issue another update for Windows 7 drivers, which would then carry forward for Windows 8 and 8.1. Just for the hell of it I tried modifying the drivers as you linked above, and adding in the device ID in the INF to force an install. The result wasn't pretty.

edit: Looks like Intel also struck off the second-gen Core chips from the supported list for Windows 8.1 drivers. Though considering the Pentium chips with HD Graphics 2000/3000 are supported, but the second-gen Core chips with the same integrated graphics isn't... I bet a INF modification could easily fix that.

Why is Intel only supporting drivers for just two years, when AMD and Nvidia go up to 4 years, or even double that in Nvidia's case?

I have 1st generation Intel Core Laptop, I had the same problem with graphics driver on Win 8.1, fortunately today i found the driver which (amazingly) suitable for my graphics. No need to uninstall the driver, just update on device manager from the driver folder. Here is the link http://www.driversdo...&brNum=3&show=0